


always have a gift for your new neighbor

by Elisye



Series: wake up, birthday girl (it's the end of an era) [2]
Category: Persona 5, Subarashiki Kono Sekai | The World Ends With You
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Persona 5: The Royal Spoilers, read the series desc for context on the twewy side of things, set during the third semester specifically so You Know What, tho for the twewy timeline this is set post-game lmao
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-08
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:08:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25139764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elisye/pseuds/Elisye
Summary: Shibuya has too many gods, and it shows.(or: Maruki runs into a girl with a stuffed cat. They talk for a little while.)
Series: wake up, birthday girl (it's the end of an era) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1184453
Comments: 4
Kudos: 29





	always have a gift for your new neighbor

**Author's Note:**

> to quote a friend, "this is 2020, a cursed year, this is exactly the time to be harmlessly self-indulgent." - so to hell with it, im crossing over p5r with my super super suuuuper indulgent twewy au because i CAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
> 
> ALSO WOW THAT TWEWY ANIME TRAILER!!!!!!!!!! WE REALLY BE FEASTING HUH

They meet each other as outsiders wandering the streets like ghosts. On the fringes of the infamous crossing, as they wait to take their step in line and watch the pedestrian lights, the girl fumbles with the contents of her coat pocket and drops her phone. Maruki, ever kind, picks it up and hands it back to her.

"Thank you," the girl says, before looking out at the frozen scenery. Literally frozen. "Even now, when you could be hiding away, you're out here, ready to help others."

Maruki frowns a bit. He shoves his hands into the pockets of his immaculate white suit, surveying the same landscape. This isn't the same as entering a space overwhelmed by cognition. And yet, if he breathes slow and easy and deep, he can almost taste the wavelengths of the crowd, their thoughts and their imagination like motes of ice and ozone floating in the wind, just within his reach to affect.

Experimentally, he flexes his mind, tries to shape the air of power around him into something - but an immediate pressure comes down on him. Godhood upon godhood.

"This isn't your playground," the girl confirms.

"Is it yours then?"

"Some would say so," she answers, after a thoughtful moment. "But if you ask me? No part of the world is just anyone's playground. None of this simply belongs to anyone."

"Then?" Maruki tilts his head at this strange, plain girl. "What is it that you wanted to tell me?"

His companion stares out at something and nothing at once. There is a very familiar look on her face - the kind that appears as a person observes a dream. Eventually, she sighs and hugs her stuffed cat closer. "I was supposed to... scold you, I guess? You kind of _are_ messing up my work, to be honest."

"Huh. So my power affected you as well." It's somewhat surprising since, well - as human as she looked, tangible and so, so mundane, she didn't have the air of someone who bothered with mortal affairs. Though, maybe she did, once upon a time.

(She just looks so young - as young, maybe even younger than the Phantom Thieves. Were it not for the echoes of nostalgia about her, the longing, the conflict that the thieves also wore in their hearts for this ideal reality - maybe then, this girl would have been a proper god. But she wasn't manufactured into it. And so, too, did her heart desire her own version of paradise.)

The girl frowns, her gaze flickering towards him. "For a little bit, it did. I nearly thought I was..." She trails off, chewing on her lower lip.

Maruki takes that time to take an unofficial survey. "Was it not to your liking? However reality changed, it should have been—"

"It was." She blurts it out, as if it had been simmering in her throat for the past while. An answer that she didn't want to admit, judging from how she just frowns harder at herself. "It was - exactly as I wanted. As I hoped. The life I dreamed for myself, one that I can never have now..."

The man waits for a bit. Silence and patience are the easiest way to draw out more.

"...But, Mr. Maruki." She turns to face him, her expression transforming into something neutral but serious. From one god to another - "As much as I want to live the life I should have had, I can't forget that I am responsible for this city now. I'm responsible for the dreams of everyone who lives and dies here - and someone like you, even with your good intentions, is _not_ helping. Not really."

"Isn't that contradictory though?" Because the researcher in him, the friendly academic, must debate, must know, to be ever more helpful - "What I'm doing is freeing everyone from their sufferings - in a sense, I _am_ fulfilling their dreams. Isn't that exactly what you would want, as a caretaker of this city and its people?"

"On the surface, it would look like that." Shibuya's guardian just sighs. "But fulfilling a dream is more than just obtaining some goal or desire. The journey there is just as important."

"Even if that journey is fraught with troubles...?"

"Even if."

Her voice is clear. Absolutely no room for argument. "Without the journey, we forget why our dreams are important. And, if we could have our wishes fulfilled without any real effort..."

The girl idly rests a hand at the base of her neck, rubbing the skin there for what seems like warmth, but also a sense of comfort. A strange expression crosses her face, briefly. Nostalgic, mostly - and a bit dour, as if remembering something impossibly unpleasant, before the dourness transforms into an exasperated variant of fondness.

"—well," she huffs, looking less like a god and more like an actual teenager, "let's just say I know the consequences of trying to make your dreams come true without actually trying."

Maruki simply bows his head a bit in acknowledgement. Even with the admittance that his reality was the kinder choice - as with the thieves, to her, it wasn't the better choice. He might disagree, but he wouldn't force his opinion on her. Especially when he was certain to be outmatched in the territory of an older tenant. "I see."

"If you see, then you would stop this," comes a very quick, clipped response. "Though I doubt you will. The person before me was the same."

Quieter, almost a mutter - "Remaking Shibuya to his ideal, no matter the cost... If I didn't see your kindness for myself, I would have clumped you into the same category as him."

The last few statements raise an eyebrow, but the girl just shoots him a _look_ and shakes her head. No more answers, so no more questions. This is the end, apparently. That's a little disappointing for his rising curiosity, but he can deal with that.

Maruki tilts his head back, breathing in as his eyes flicker shut, briefly. Winter ticks and tinkles in his ears. In the next moment, he watches his breath stream into the sky, mingling and transforming into vanishing clouds. Just like this conversation would be in the next couple of minutes. So his parting words are this - "It sound strange, coming from me, but I'm glad we met anyway."

"Me too." A slightly shaky exhale. "It feels like it's been forever since I've talked to someone from down here. I usually can't - goes against the rules."

He offers a smile, a genuine one. "Well, should my reality become fully accepted, I'll always be here to talk, if you need to."

"That won't happen." Once again, a clear voice. A firm sense of certainty, borne of confidence - and something else. As if she just _knew_ what the future would be, could see and hear it in her mind, singing to her between the alleyways of the city. "The Phantom Thieves will stop you. And the world will go back to how it should have been."

A pause. "I just wanted to say though, even if I can't accept any of this - a part of me still appreciates it. You let me be alive again, with my family, my friends... So, thank you. For just that much."

The world, so far endless and timeless, finally resumes its march. The split-second transition creates a rain of claustrophobia across the crossing - sounds swarming in, occupying the fragile silence, as cars rush through and people's footsteps chatter along the asphalt. The traffic lights change, and people move on, disappearing.

Maruki stays in place for a second longer, staring at the momentary outline of a fellow god with a stuffed cat, before he turns on his heels and continues with his walk.

After all, this doesn't change anything - not his thoughts, nor the future to come.

But, yes. It was nice while it all lasted.


End file.
